Tuesday, September 06, 2005

1,000 trained rescuers who went in to relieve over-worked local New Orleans emergency crews spend the day in sexual harassment class and handing out fliers for FEMA.

I'm just getting more and more angry about how the Katrina After-Disaster is being handled. I know corporations run America but in the middle of rescue operations is it really necessary to submit the responders to the corporate BS environment that the rest of us have to deal with?

Let them get to work! These are professionals of action and they are not ones to sit around when people need help. They are so determined, in fact, that a strong leader is needed to make sure they don't do anything fool-hardy. Hopefully that kind of leader will step forwards soon and ignore the photo-ops and get on the job.

I promise you I'm going to be recalling these past and future weeks and taking this anger with me to the polls next time (especially after seeing the BBC footage that American networks will not air due to the horrifying content of the images). The next group in your offices won't be any better, but at least they won't be you.

Right now all Americans outside the event see is people homeless and property damaged, and the impact of that will fade over time. The media reports that people have died, but there are not (and should not be) any visuals. People know it intellectually but not viscerally, and I hope they don't forget what has happened.Tags: KatrinaIncompetent

I don't think it was official policy, just a lunatic official. I think it just after the hurricane, when some sort of small scale rescue was underway. A British tourist was told that, no, they couldn't come in this boat as it was US citizens only. Instead, they got shuffled down to the superdome, but then had to be moved again because they were getting death threats.

Not as impressive, though, as the policeman in the boat who was demanding women pull up their blouses before he'd rescue them. Or the ones nicking shoes in that Wal-Mart.

- That's just nuts. Why would the british get death threats? Where they evil druids who called down the storm? Did they get seperate drinking fountains at the Superdome with one labeled "British Only"?

Not as impressive, though, as the policeman in the boat who was demanding women pull up their blouses before he'd rescue them. - Girls Gone Katrina! Should be a big seller.

I don't think it was their Britishness (though I suppose the locals might still be annoyed about 1814). It was more that - how should I put this without seeming to comment on internal divisions in another society? - the only people with white skin in the superdome who hadn't spent the last year sleeping in outlet pipes were foreigners. And a small minority of the 20000 (or whatever) African-Americans who had been left to die were feeling a bit resentful.